Newly crowned Eclipse Award winner Will Take Charge will
kick off 2014 in the Grade 1, $500,000 Donn Handicap at Gulfstream Park on February
9.
The Unbridled’s Song colt nearly ran the table in the final months of his
sophomore season, defeating his peers in a pair of $1-million races — the Travers
and Pennsylvania Derby — before acquitting himself with aplomb
against his elders. After finishing second by a head to Mucho Macho
Man in the Breeders’ Cup Classic on November 2, Will Take Charge got up in
time to defeat Game On Dude in the Clark Handicap 22 days later.
“I haven’t seen the weights yet and I’m not sure who else
is running, but it’s the first Grade 1 race of the year so I thought we’d take
advantage of it,” trainer D. Wayne Lukas said.
The big chestnut is slated to arrive at Gulfstream on
February 4, five days before the Donn. He has been wintering at Oaklawn Park in
Hot Springs, Arkansas, and breezed six furlongs from the gate in 1:14 4/5 on
January 26.
“He’s been training sensationally,” Lukas praised. “He’s
really developed and filled out, and he’s been doing very, very well.”
Despite finishing off the board in all three Triple Crown
races, Will Take Charge rewarded his trainer’s faith with his late-season surge.
“I thought he was getting better and that we had a chance
at the championship if we could finish up in the fall, because that’s usually
what happens — the horses that finish strong are the ones (that win),” Lukas
reflected. “He developed and even though he had a very busy three-year-old campaign,
it didn’t seem to affect him. He’s actually better now than he’s ever been. A
lot of that has to do with maturity. With the way he’s filled out and finally
learned how to run, he could have a sensational year.”
This will be the second trip to Gulfstream in a month for
Lukas, who was on hand to accept the Eclipse Award of Merit on January 18.
“That was pretty special,” Lukas admitted. “In light of the people that had
previously won, I think it highlighted a career that I have enjoyed immensely.
You do it as a labor of love, as they say, but that was very special.”
The 59th running of the Donn, the first race in The Jockey
Club Tour on Fox, will also feature Revolutionary, hero of last year’s Louisiana
Derby and Withers prior to a third in the Kentucky Derby and a fifth-placing in
the Belmont Stakes to close out his sophomore season.
Owned
by WinStar Farm, the son of War Pass was victorious in his 2014 opener, a
one-mile optional claiming event at Gulfstream on January 11. The four-year-old
drilled a bullet half-mile in :47 4/5 for trainer Todd Pletcher at Palm Meadows
on January 27.
“He breezed well and everything’s on schedule,” Pletcher declared. “As you would expect for the Donn, it’s a Grade
1 and it’s
going to be a tough race, but we’re looking forward to it.”
Also nominated to the 1 1/8-mile event are Lea, a sharp winner of the January
11 Hal’s Hope at Gulfstream in his
first start for conditioner Bill Mott; and the Nick Gonzalez-trained River
Seven, who established a track record for 8 1/2 furlongs when taking the Harlan’s
Holiday on December 22 by four lengths.
Grade 2 hero Neck ‘n Neck, fourth in the Harlan’s Holiday and
third in the Hal’s Hope in his past two for trainer Ian Wilkes, is expected to contest the Donn,
as is fellow Grade 2 scorer Bourbon Courage, second in last year’s renewal of
the Donn and most recently third in
the Harlan’s Holiday for trainer Kellyn Gorder.
Vosburgh victor Private Zone, most recently runner-up
in the November 30 Cigar Mile, was nominated to the Donn by California-based trainer
Doug O’Neill. Other possible entrants include Grade 3 winner Falling Sky, second to
Revolutionary on January 11 for the George Weaver barn; Long River, who is
riding a three-race win streak including a pair of Aqueduct stakes on behalf of the Kiaran McLaughlin string;
and Romansh, who romped by 9 1/4 lengths in the Discovery Handicap at Aqueduct on November 2
for trainer Tom Albertrani.
Weights for the Donn will be revealed on Saturday.
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